Beijing to use odd-even traffic ban to ease traffic during special occasions, bad weather

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing municipal government said on Tuesday that the city will use its odd-even license plate system to reduce the number of cars on the road during important festivals, events and cases of extreme weather.

The system will allow cars to drive on alternating days based on license plate numbers, according to a traffic control program posted on the municipal government's website.

The exact execution date of the program is yet to be released.

According to the program, the city will continue to advocate public transportation and accelerate the construction of its subways.

Facilities such as traffic monitoring systems will continue to be built in order to ease congestion, the program said.

In 2010, more than 700,000 new cars were sold in Beijing, bringing the city's total number of automobiles to more than 4.7 million, statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport (BMCT) showed.

Beijing previously imposed a traffic ban based on an odd-even license plate system during the 2008 Olympics, which took 45 percent of the city's cars off the roads and helped clear the skies.

However, traffic jams returned as soon as the ban was lifted.

A new regulation limiting the purchase of cars took effect at the beginning of this year, with potential buyers being required to participate in a lottery to get new purchase permits.